Meridy King has a vision of timelessness and fun. “The thing I aspire to create is an environment that has the elegance and warmth of age and the freshness and energy of youth,”she says. Meridy is a master of the smallest detail, but argues against being too perfectionistic.

Meridy has been around good design and great old things her whole life. Her mother helped organize the first Atlanta Decorators Show Houses and wrote a newspaper column, called “Peddler’s Path,” about shopping for antiques. She earned degrees in both advertising and interior design, and worked on the retail side of both the furnishings and fashion industries before establishing her own design firm. Since then, she’s made a mark with her signature approach, producing spaces that are easily livable and deeply rooted in history. “I balance good taste and fun,” she says. Her work has been published in Trend, Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles, Atlanta Magazine’s Home, and several European magazines.

Meridy takes inspiration from the old houses of Europe, with their patina of age and long use. “But I don’t care for old and stuffy, even if it’s fabulous,” she says. “I love a little spunk in it, a few modernist pieces- as if a young person, maybe the princess, came into the castle.”

Her own home, which her husband built, is modeled after a European country house. It deliberately incorporates elements with the feel of great age like real plaster walls, beamed ceilings, old mantels and doors, and stone flooring reclaimed from an English factory. We want an old new house,” Meridy says. I appreciate and like the imperfections of older furnishings and architectural pieces. I love the story they tell in a few dings. Our home is not so uptight, and neither am I. Life’s too short to worry about every single thing.”